Congressman: Threat that closed Los Angeles schools appears to be a hoax

Students “at every school in the New York City school district will be massacred, mercilessly”.

Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines said every campus would be searched before schools reopened.

Against the backdrop of the San Bernardino attack, it’s “just human nature” for LA authorities to be more cautious, Tama said. “When I was there, we would assess the situation”, and depending on the “gravity or how real the threats seemed, or how credible”, a single school would be closed.

That followed a spate of mass shootings, capped by the December 2 spree by a heavily armed couple inspired by Islamic State who killed 14 at an office holiday party in San Bernardino, California.

The same email was apparently sent to schools in a number of major cities, including New York City.

To help parents deal with the unscheduled day off, the Petersen Automotive Museum, Discovery Cube Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Battleship USS Iowa offered students free admission in the wake of Tuesday’s school closure.

– From Associated Press writer Tami Abdollah in Washington, D.C. _ 7:50 a.m. Officials say the San Bernardino shooting influenced the decision to close all schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District after receiving a threat.

Police officials said the email mentioned assault rifles, machine pistols and implied the use of explosives. He said that officers would search all of the district’s campuses.

The spokesperson said the threat was sent via email to a district board member and came through an internet protocol, or IP, address from the German city.

NYC school systems will remain open, even though a superintendent in the New York City school system received a similar threat in the morning. “We have received no credible threats”.

“We ask for the patience and the cooperation and the support of the city”, he added.

“L.A.is a huge school system”, said Bratton, who had served as police chief in Los Angeles.

Students and staff were directed to stay away from all campuses.

Garcetti said Tuesday that officials were acting out of “an abundance of caution” in their investigation of a threat that closed the Los Angeles Unified School District for the day.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton agreed.

“We can not allow ourselves to raise levels of fear”, said Bratton, who once ran the LA Police Department.

“That’s the reason I took the action that I did”, he said.

Those threats led to the evacuation or closure of schools in 30 percent of the cases, according to the study.

Federal officials said it was most likely a hoax. Spokesman Josh Earnest says he won’t “second-guess” the decisions by Los Angeles officials to close their schools and New York City officials to keep their students in class. Earnest says local authorities make decisions based on information they receive and what they believe is in the best interests of their communities. It was estimated that a total of 640,000 students across Los Angeles were affected by the shutdown.

Private schools have the option to decide whether or not they will close and all students can ride for free on Los Angeles buses and subways. We are in high visibility especially around the schools.

The LAUSD is the second largest education district in the nation with more than 900 schools.

Charlie Beck, Los Angeles police chief, immediately defended the district’s decision: “It is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results that the deciders could have never known”.